XVI PREFACE. 



the human eye. On this last point, the 

 learned German Helmholtz, as the late 

 Professor Clifford boasted in an address 

 to the British Association in 1872, has 

 declared that "If an optician sent me 

 a human eye as an instrument, I should 

 send it back to him with grave reproaches 

 for the carelessness of his work, and de- 

 mand back my money ; "* but this bold 

 avowal of Atheism, which must sincerely 

 pain every one who has the slightest 

 regard for the God of Eevelation, neither 

 disproves the inference to be drawn from 

 teleology, nor the existence of a Supreme 

 Creator. 



Now it is somewhat remarkable that 

 Mr. Darwin himself, in distinct opposition 

 to the opinion of Helmholtz, very candidly 

 says " To suppose that the eye, with all 

 its immutable contrivances for adjusting 

 the focus to different distances, for admit- 

 ting different amounts of light, and for 



* Lectures and Essays, by the late W. K. Clifford, 

 P.E.S., vol. i., p. 145. 



